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2017 Annual Report: Decoding Complexity

Consider one of the cell's most basic functions: replication and division. Without this fundamental process, none of us multicellular organisms would exist. But then consider the sheer number of parts involved. Three billion proteins, 30 billion lipids, 50 million RNAs, two meters of mission-critical DNA—all being duplicated in less than a day. Biological systems, even small-scale ones, are stunningly complex.

The only way we will ever make sense of this complexity is to reveal its organizing principles. At the Allen Institute, we are creating models that can understand how brain circuits will behave, predict where parts of a cell will be during its various stages, and untangle how our cells communicate to build entire organisms. We are also setting foundational standards in the form of scientic tools and resources—including gene edited stem cell and mouse lines—and working toward a periodic table of cell types in the brain.

Our big, team and open science approach has given us a unique ability to pursue these projects at a large and exciting scale. We hope that our efforts to decode biology's complexity, and to freely share what we discover and create, will drive scientic progress in labs and institutions around the globe.